Shoulda Coulda Woulda

[jacket24]

Has anyone else found themselves alternating between thoughts of how perfect any of their programs would be and wishing they applied more/elsewhere? I know that I did my due diligence when selecting schools to apply to, but the waiting puts everything into question.

Did I pick this school only because of the name? Would X be more appropriate than Y for my interests? Should I have applied to Z despite a slightly weaker research fit?

I'm sure all of this is a coping mechanism to avoid attachment to any one possibility, but it has become difficult to focus on much else in life with so much uncertainty.

[ChuckCL]

I had some worries about that, but not a lot (especially once I started receiving notifications, I realized that I'd pretty much made the right decisions).

 

What does shock me is the number of people on the results page saying things like "Well, it wasn't a good fit" or "I didn't want to go there anyway" Why did you apply to a program you didn't want to attend or a program that was a bad fit?!

[jacket24]

This line of thinking is certainly tied to not having heard back from anywhere yet. Those posts on the results page are probably a way of coping with disappointment. It's easier, and arguably healthier, to say "it wasn't meant to be" and wash your hands of it than it is to dwell on what might have been.

[Wishful Thinker]

Has anyone else found themselves alternating between thoughts of how perfect any of their programs would be and wishing they applied more/elsewhere? I know that I did my due diligence when selecting schools to apply to, but the waiting puts everything into question.

Did I pick this school only because of the name? Would X be more appropriate than Y for my interests? Should I have applied to Z despite a slightly weaker research fit?

I'm sure all of this is a coping mechanism to avoid attachment to any one possibility, but it has become difficult to focus on much else in life with so much uncertainty.

 

A lot of us go through this. I'm finally happy with wherever I've applied to & waiting to hear back from them. In my case i had filled out complete applications & even application packets were ready but since I got an admit from NEU , i didnt press submit / dispatched documents since I knew if I had option of choosing between NEU vs Uni X (where i was originally planning to apply) i would defo choose NEU. 

 

But the wait to hear back is agonizing so maybe people are kinda over analyzing as they are anxious/nervous. Happens to me, in the sense " If i got in X or Y or Z from my list which will I choose?" 

[grad_wannabe]

Yes, I went through this. There was one school in particular that I'd dismissed somewhat lightly because I "didn't like the city." Truth be told I was so overwhelmed by the entire application process that it felt good to be able to cross a program off the list!

 

After the deadlines had all passed, at least three or four people here on GC messaged me to ask why I didn't apply to that school, saying "Its a perfect fit for you!"

 

In a bout of anxiety (and too much time on my hands over Christmas break) I started searching for other schools that I might have dismissed too quickly.

 

I found one that I didn't apply to because it seemed like too much a long-shot, only taking four students per year. Turned out they had happened to extend their deadline ... to ONE WEEK after I was looking at them! Quick-as-catch-can I fired off an application.

 

I ended up getting in and it looks like I'll be attending. 

 

Part of me is growing a little superstitious in thinking "things work out the way they're meant to."